Alain Guillot

Life, Leadership, and Money Matters

Business leader

The Qualities Required for a Business Leader

Those who are leaders need to have different qualities from those that simply follow instructions. Some of these qualities will be inborn within us and others can be learned and developed. Business coaching certification classes are designed to teach us skills in a practical and theoretical way and also provide recognition of them for the future.

So what are these qualities that are required by leaders in business?

Excellent Communication Skills

Good leaders will be excellent communicators. They know how to instruct those under their wing and to have them work most efficiently. By following company policies or ones that they have come up with themselves, employees will be led in the direction required to work in the best way.

We can learn communication skills from coaching certification courses that are about leadership. Managers of the future can learn to present information to others in a one-to-one situation or as a group. This will include speaking to others and understanding the computer technology that goes with that, in terms of things like conducting a presentation. Both verbal and written skills are important for a leader to develop.

Ability to Motivate Others

We need to be able to encourage others when we are a leader. This is to ensure that we get the most work out of them and allow them to reach their full potential. It is the teaching of skills that make processes easier for staff to understand, and so will be more efficient and invaluable to these staff and the overall running of a business.

The quality to motivate often comes from having enthusiasm, and lots of it. If someone appears enthusiastic about a process themselves, then they are much more likely to encourage another to be safe. Enthusiasm is, after all, infectious.

Fairness

Fairness is about empathy and understanding the needs of staff with differing requirements as individuals in their workplace. The main thing with this is to treat everyone equally, no matter what their position within a company. Everyone is entitled to the same respect, for instance. Every job can be considered as important as another.

Integrity

A degree of integrity is required as a business leader. This is so that everyone gains the trust of that leader. Respect needs to work both ways. Then, more productivity will result from, for example, a coach who is guiding those working under them into improved working practices as well as expanding what they are capable of doing.

Decisiveness

It is most important that a leader can make swift decisions, and the right ones. This will earn them the confidence of their workforce and likely mean that more notice is taken of their requests and instructions. To have a workforce on the side of their leader is vital for the process of leadership to produce results. 

Rules need to be followed so that everyone is working with a common aim in mind. The decisions made when things are not working will be all-important to improving performances.

Self-Awareness

This is, perhaps, a quality many would not even think about, but self-awareness is important for a leader as they need to be able to recognize their own strengths and weaknesses. If something is beyond their capabilities, because they might require further training, it would be unhelpful for them to pursue it and end up failing the task. It is important, therefore, to speak up sooner rather than later so that work is not disrupted or business lost.

With the above qualities, a leader will be well on their way to becoming an effective supervisor or manager of colleagues looking for their help and guidance. It helps to fully understand the job of those being supervised, although this can be found out. More importantly, a leadership role is about possessing or acquiring the qualities that make management possible. Staff will all have different skills and aspirations, so they must be guided into making maximum use of these and fulfilling their potential, making everyone feel satisfied. A highly motivated workforce will also be a productive one, and that is what will drive a business forward, whether this relates to manufacturing or selling more products. In the services sector, this will mean providing a better quality of service for clients ultimately.